Interesting facts about substances for children. Methodological development "interesting facts about household chemicals"

Still from the film “Lean on Friends”

The history of soap making began around 2800 BC. The first stone had not yet been laid in Rome, Gautama Buddha had not founded the most ancient of existing religions - Buddhism, the Mayan tribe did not exist, and our ancestors were already mixing oils of biological origin with ash and sand, thus obtaining a prototype of laundry soap.

Over the long millennia of its existence, the chemical industry has experienced its ups and downs, acquiring amazing stories and facts. We, the employees of Prochistotu LLC, study the market, new products and compositions of chemical products for home and body care every day, selecting the most effective and safe ones to supply them to the Russian market. But no less interesting is our collection of amazing facts that accumulate in the process of our work. After all, professionalism lies not only in the ability to masterfully understand the intricacies of one’s business, but also to love, respect and constantly make small discoveries.

Our list of 9 amazing facts:

1. The first trendsetters For household chemicals, you can call the ancient Egyptians. Yes, they were not the first to invent cosmetics, perfumes and detergents. But for the first time in history, they managed to reproduce the entire beauty industry, organizing production and economic relationships similar to those that operate in the modern market. It was in Egypt that household chemicals were made through the division of labor into narrow specializations (one sculpts clay containers for perfume, another makes this perfume, a third makes eye shadow, and a fourth makes wooden sticks for applying it).

2. Did you know that The creators of toothpaste are considered inhabitants of the lower Nile? Back in 5000-3000 BC. they mixed pumice, wine vinegar and even ashes from the burnt entrails of a bull. Fortunately for us and the bulls, much more effective and safe ingredients are now being used in toothpaste production.

3. The peculiarity of Japanese and Korean household chemicals is that these countries have a very humid maritime climate, which promotes the development of mold. That is why all detergents produced in Japan and Korea disinfect and prevent the development of fungi and bacteria. Even poorly dried items lying indoors do not develop a musty smell. In addition, high water prices force manufacturers to create formulations that are easy to wash off, safe and economical for the end consumer. This is why Japanese and Korean dishwashing detergents are also suitable for washing vegetables and fruits.

4. If you think you're safe as long as household chemicals don't come into contact with your skin or get into your body by ingestion, then we have bad news. Household chemicals are most dangerous when inhaled.. Even if you rinse your shirt well, small amounts of phosphates remain on it, inhaling which does not bode well for your body. Therefore, for your own safety, we recommend completely avoiding phosphate-containing washing powders and detergents.

Clean work: Japanese household products appeared on the Voronezh market

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5. White doesn't mean new! Imagine taking your favorite yellowed blouse and painting it white. Seems stupid? But you do this stupid thing every time you wash. The thing is that many washing powders contain so-called optical brighteners. Cheap powders contain synthetic salts, while high-quality and expensive ones contain enzymatic optical brighteners (they are more environmentally friendly and safe). So, these same bleaches have the ability to absorb invisible natural ultraviolet rays (in the region of 300-400 nm) and convert them into visible rays with a longer wavelength (400-500 nm). It is due to this simple trick that materials begin to appear cleaner and whiter.

6. Before the invention of shampoo in the 19th century, people washed their hair with ash and regular soap. The starting point was the invention of Casey Herbert. He mixed soap powder with herbs and simply began selling this mixture in bags near his house. He called his invention Shaempoo (from Shaempo, which translated from Hindi translated as “massage”, “rub”). Gradually, the use of dry shampoo has become quite popular among Londoners. Herbert himself developed 8 different scents. But his problem was legal illiteracy. He didn't know that the invention needed to be patented. Soon other pharmacists, hairdressers and perfumers began making their own shampoos. And in 1903, an unknown woman brought such a bag to Berlin and told the pharmacist about the miracle drug. He quickly appreciated the potential of the invention and was able to create an entire brand. This pharmacist's name was Hans Schwarzkopf.

7. Did you know that toothpaste can successfully care for more than just your oral cavity? The extract of star anise (or star anise) included in a good expensive toothpaste is an excellent anesthetic. If you apply this toothpaste to an insect bite, the itching will stop immediately. In addition, star anise has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects. Therefore, such toothpaste, when applied to a small cut or callus blister, will disinfect and quickly dry the wound.

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8. Chlorine is one of the most effective means for removing brilliant green stains. Don't believe me? Take any chlorine-containing detergent and apply it to a piece of cloth stained with brilliant green. The stain will disappear instantly. This trick is used by sellers of some detergents, getting rid of the brilliant green on a scarf in the blink of an eye before the gaze of an astonished public. In fact, this trick speaks about the chlorine-containing components in the composition of such powders. Of course, they cope with removing such difficult-to-remove stains, but they are not recommended for daily use (as they quickly wear out the fabric in your favorite things). In addition, components containing active chlorine are not the most beneficial substances for health.

9. Men clean less often, but more efficiently than women. Unbelievable but true. Our research has shown that gender stereotypes are becoming a thing of the past, and the boundaries of employment have become more blurred. Women are increasingly giving preference to a career, and men are beginning to take on more active responsibilities at home. At the same time, men show much greater interest in the compositions, and are also more demanding about the effectiveness of detergents. Our sales statistics show that women tend to be conservative in their choices, rarely experiment, and give preference to the brand. Men are the opposite. They are experimenters and rationalists, their fields of interest are technology and science. We did an interesting study. They gave us a questionnaire to fill out and asked us to rate from 1 to 10 points the priorities of the requirements for household chemicals. The results showed that men ranked efficiency and composition first and second, while women prioritized efficiency but only ranked composition eighth. At the second stage, we showed three brands: one is a well-known “children’s” washing powder in Russia, the other is a regular washing powder of a well-known brand (without the “children’s” marking), the third sample is a Japanese concentrated washing powder. After which we covered the labels on the packs and asked respondents to guess the brand, having only the ingredients on hand. In this experiment, men guessed the Japanese remedy in 42% of cases, women barely reached 27%. When distinguishing “children’s” washing powder from “adult” ones, the indicators were approximately equal. Although this is not surprising. After all, even we, professionals in our field, did not see any differences in the composition of the “children’s” and “adult” brands known in Russia.

Chemistry is a familiar school subject. Everyone enjoyed watching the reaction of the reagents. But few people know interesting facts about chemistry, which we will discuss in this article.

• 1. Modern passenger planes use from 50 to 75 tons of oxygen during a nine-hour flight. The same amount of this substance is produced by 25,000-50,000 hectares of forest during the process of photosynthesis.
• 2. One liter of sea water contains 25 grams of salt.
• 3. Hydrogen atoms are so small that if 100 million of them are placed in a chain one after another, the length will be only one centimeter.
• 4. One ton of water in the World Ocean contains 7 milligrams of gold. The total amount of this precious metal in the waters of the oceans is 10 billion tons.
• 5. The human body contains approximately 65-75% water. It is used by organ systems to transport nutrients, regulate temperature, and dissolve nutritional compounds.
• 6. Interesting facts about chemistry concern our planet Earth. For example, over the past 5 centuries its mass has increased by a billion tons. Cosmic substances have added such weight.
• 7. The walls of a soap bubble are perhaps the thinnest matter that a person can see with the naked eye. For example, the thickness of tissue paper or hair is several thousand times thicker.
• 8. The speed of a soap bubble bursting is 0.001 seconds. The speed of a nuclear reaction is 0.000 000 000 000 000 001 seconds.
• 9. Iron, a very hard and durable material in its normal state, becomes gaseous at a temperature of 5 thousand degrees Celsius.
• 10. In just a minute, the Sun produces more energy than our planet uses in a whole year. But we don't use it fully. 19% of solar energy is absorbed by the atmosphere, 34% returns to space, and only 47% reaches the Earth.
• 11. Oddly enough, granite conducts sound better than air. So, if there was a granite wall (solid) between people, they would hear sounds at a distance of one kilometer. In ordinary life, in such conditions, sound travels only a hundred meters.
• 12. Swedish scientist Carl Schelle holds the record for the number of discovered chemical elements. It contains chlorine, fluorine, barium, tungsten, oxygen, manganese, and molybdenum.
• Second place was shared by the Swedes Jakob Berzelius, Karl Monsander, the Englishman Humphry Davy and the Frenchman Paul Lecoq de Boisbordant. They are responsible for the discovery of a quarter of all elements known to modern science (that is, 4 each).
• 13. The largest platinum nugget is the so-called “Ural Giant”. Its weight is 7 kilograms and 860.5 grams. This giant is kept in the Diamond Fund of the Moscow Kremlin.
• 14. September 16, since 1994, is the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, according to the decree of the UN General Assembly.
• 15. Carbon dioxide, which is widely used to create modern carbonated drinks, was discovered by the English scientist Joseph Priestley back in 1767. Then Priestley became interested in the bubbles formed during the fermentation of beer.
• 16. Dancing squid - this is the name of an amazing dish in Japan. The newly caught and killed squid is placed in a bowl of rice and drizzled with soy sauce in front of the customer. When interacting with sodium, which is contained in soy sauce, the nerve endings of even killed squid begin to react. As a result of this chemical reaction, the shellfish begins to “dance” right in the plate.
• 17. Skatole is an organic compound that is responsible for the characteristic odor of feces. An interesting fact is that in large doses this substance has a pleasant floral aroma, which is used in the food industry and perfumery.

For many, weekdays are almost monotonous: home, work, home... And often this makes people depressed, because there is a lack of some variety, events, adventures, something interesting! But in fact, millions of events and various interesting phenomena happen around us every day, to which we do not pay attention not only because we are inattentive, but because the human eye simply does not see it.

For example, various chemical processes are constantly taking place around us. It is an illusion that chemistry is something complex and incomprehensible. In fact, chemistry is a part of our life, without which human life would not only be much more boring, but completely impossible.

Amazing facts about chemistry:

1. A soap bubble is the thinnest matter that the human eye can see. A soap bubble bursts in 0.001 seconds. Moreover, if you inflate a bubble at -15 C o, it will freeze upon contact with the surface, and at -25 C o, it will freeze in the air and break upon impact.

2. Ocean waters contain gold. There are 7 milligrams of gold per ton of ocean water.

3. During flight, airplanes use up to 75 tons of oxygen; this amount of oxygen is produced by 30,000 hectares of forest.

4. Iron can be turned into gas at a temperature of 1539 C 0.

5. Every living organism on our planet contains protein, but in different proportions. The human brain is also protein.

6. The lethal dose of methyl alcohol is 30 ml, and the antidote is ethyl alcohol.

7. Metal does not smell. Everyone is familiar with the smell of untreated (not painted) metal; this is the smell, for example, of metal money, railings, old swings, fittings, or just a piece of metal. But this smell is not emitted by the metal itself, it is the result of contact of the metal with an organic substance, for example, with our palm or finger, which produces sweat.

8. Tomatoes are very smart plants, they know how to shout “SOS!” When an insect - such as a caterpillar - begins to chew on a tomato leaf, it releases a chemical with a certain odor that attracts birds.

9. Charles Goodyear is a scientist who accidentally invented rubber that does not melt in the heat and does not break in the cold. He forgot to remove the mixture of sulfur and rubber from the switched on stove, so a process for making rubber was invented, which was called vulcanization.

10. About 100 thousand chemical reactions occur in the human brain every minute.

Chemistry constantly surrounds us. It is not only around us, but also inside our body, and even our thought process is, in essence, chemistry. So chemistry not only helps us learn a lot of interesting and surprising things, but also benefits us in every sense.

We will present it in a way that everyone can understand. One of the relevant and useful questions concerns methyl alcohol.

This substance is almost impossible to distinguish from ethyl alcohol, but the effects of the former are very harmful to human health and its use can be fatal.

A very small dose of methanol can deprive a person of his vision, and drinking more than 30 ml of alcohol leads to death.

Now it becomes clear why people get poisoned when they drink low-quality alcohol. And the most amazing thing is that there is an antidote and it is ethyl alcohol.

Let's start with historical information. We are used to thinking that Mendeleev dreamed about the table of chemical elements, but one day he was asked this question, to which he clearly answered: “I’ve been thinking about it for maybe twenty years, but you think: I was sitting there and suddenly... it’s done.”

At what temperature do you think water freezes? At 0°C? But no. Water can turn into ice even at +20°C if it contains an admixture of methane. That is, water forms a gas hydrate with methane. Water molecules are pushed apart under the pressure of methane molecules. As a result, the internal water pressure decreases and the freezing point increases.

As a rule, they are most often obtained by accident. Charles Goodyear from America, through his carelessness, created a recipe for durable rubber. It does not crack at sub-zero temperatures and does not soften in extreme heat. His mistake was to leave a heated mixture of sulfur and rubber on the stove, a process now called vulcanization.

The Lego children's construction set is made of plastic containing barium sulfate.

This salt is absolutely harmless to the body and does not dissolve in water. Moreover, it is well determined by X-rays, so the part swallowed by the baby can be easily found by taking a picture.

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There are interesting facts about chemistry related to the plant world. As you know, plants are protected from strong exposure to ultraviolet rays and heavy rainfall, but this is not their only natural feature. They are able to protect themselves from animals and insects with the help of specific odors and enzymes that they secrete when they see danger. In this way, plants can even kill the animal that eats them.

It’s unlikely that everything can be covered in a short article, so we will briefly look at its most important elements.

• It is difficult to imagine that the human brain carries out 100,000 chemical reactions per second;
• Residents of the United States are adding a chemical element to the gas pipeline with a distinct smell of rotten meat. This is necessary in order to quickly detect a leak, since vultures flock to this smell;
• About 90% of all atoms in the Universe are occupied by Hydrogen;
• Gold is not such a rare metal as we think; there is enough of this metal in the earth’s crust to cover the entire surface of the planet;
• Technetium (Tc) is used to detect bone cancer using x-rays;
• Triiodine nitride NI3 is a very dangerous explosive. Its temperature can rise even if a fly lands on it, resulting in an explosion.
• Many elements and substances of chemistry were discovered by accident, and antibiotics are no exception. Alexander Fleming accidentally left a test tube containing staphylococcus bacteria unattended. This led to the rapid proliferation of mold fungi, which began to destroy the bacteria. After this, Fleming received penicillin.

Do not ignore science, because we contain the entire periodic table; learning interesting facts about chemistry means learning something new about yourself.

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An amazing world is around us, a lot of interesting things surround a person, a lot of things he has no idea about, it’s enough just to remember interesting facts about chemistry and understand what a wonderful world a person lives in.

1. Just remember gallium and the effect of a dissolving teaspoon immediately comes to mind.. Surprisingly, at room temperature this metal is similar to aluminum. It begins to melt at 28 degrees Celsius. Scientists chemists often joke about their comrades. They give them hebbled spoons, and then see the surprise of those who come when the metal device simply begins to “melt” in a mug of freshly brewed tea.
2. Mercury in a thermometer remains liquid at room temperature.

   

3. Everyone knows the fact that Mendeleev dreamed of the periodic table of chemical elements. But few people know that the scientist himself, when it came to his table, always said: “I worked on it for maybe twenty years, and you think that I sat down... and it just appeared.”
4. Sometimes knowledge of chemistry helps to successfully fight wars. Suffice it to recall the example of a virtually unknown battle of the First World War. This battle was related to the extraction of the metal molybdenum. This metal was used in the construction of the legendary German "Big Bertha" cannon. It was used for a reason; this metal turned out to be so durable that the manufactured barrel, which was fired for several kilometers, was not deformed by the shells from overheating. The only place where molybdenum was mined was in the Colorado mine. Having learned this fact, a group from the German company Krupp, located in those places, took possession of this mine with a fight. The German army was supplied with such durable metal. The Allies did not attach any importance to this skirmish, and only towards the end of the war they realized how thoughtful this strategic move was.

   

5. It is impossible to find water in its original pure form (H2O) in nature.. Water absorbs everything it encounters on its way. Thus, after drinking well water, we consume a “compote”, the composition of which no other person could replicate.

   

6. Water reacts to the world around it. Scientists used water from the same source in different containers. Classical music was played next to one, and the other was placed in a room with people swearing. As a result, based on the composition and structure of the water, it was possible to determine which container with liquid was located where.

   

7. A mixture of bitter, sweet and sour is exactly how you can describe the taste of grapefruit. After processing 100 liters of this juice, scientists were able to isolate mercaptan. He is a taste record holder. A person can feel the taste of such a compound already at a concentration of 0.02 ng/l. To obtain such a concentration, it is enough to dilute only 2 mg of mercaptan for a tanker of water of 100,000 tons.

   

8. An interesting process can be observed in the symbiosis of the fig tree and fig wasps that live in the fruits of this tree. A ripe berry increases the concentration of carbon dioxide by 10%. This is enough to put female wasps to sleep. The males remain active, fertilize the females and fly away, making a hole in the fruit. CO2 comes out, the awakened females fly away and take the pollen with them.

   

9. The scientific name for oxygen is dephlogisticated air..

   

10. Air is 4/5 nitrogen. If you get into a chamber with nitrogen, such chambers are found, for example, in mines, a person finds himself trapped. Nitrogen is colorless and odorless; it seems to a person that he continues to breathe, not realizing that in a few seconds he will fall dead from lack of air.

    

11. Interesting facts are also found in the lives of great chemists. For example, in 1921, two young men came to the famous artist Dmitry Kustodiev and asked him to paint their portraits. Their desire was not without reason, Kustodiev painted exclusively famous people at that time, and the young men were sure that this is exactly what they would become in the future, even though they were still unknown to anyone. The artist agreed, and the payment was a bag of millet and a rooster. The young people turned out to be Nikolai Simenov and Pyotr Kapitsev, who later became great scientists and Nobel Prize laureates in physics and chemistry.

    

12. Great chemist unknown to anyone. One day, King Gustav III of Sweden visited Paris. French scientists came to him for an audience and began to admire the work of the great Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. The king was happy, but did not understand who he was talking about, and ordered Scheel to be elevated to knighthood. But the Prime Minister also did not know such a person, and by chance another Scheele, an artilleryman, was elevated to this rank. The chemist remained an unknown chemist to everyone.